every cure has its thorns
by TheFigureInTheCorner
Summary: Spoilers for the 4th and 5th books. Tete had a lot of health problems, and so JB did too. Sometimes cures could be unreliable. Oneshot.


In JB's time, they had cured asthma. One quick injection every ten years and you wouldn't have any problems! Inhalers were a relic of the past.

As such, JB didn't have one. He had something for emergencies- a temporary pill version of the medicine- but it was only the one pill, because "Oh, you won't need any more than that! Sure, you're a time traveler, but you can just make sure you're back in time for your injections!"

He'd argued with them, about damaged time and the great possibility that he wouldn't be able to make it for his injections. Nobody listened, just his luck.

And of course he had been right.

Five years in the 1600s and he was way overdue for his appointment. He had, miraculously, not lost his emergency medication, and if he ever did he could probably, hopefully, locate it with the Elucidator.

As long as you don't strain yourself, he thought, staring into the campfire before him, as long as you don't get too close to that fire, or breathe in too much dirt, you should be fine.

And he was, mostly. But circumstances in his life did tend to get out of hand.

Waking up to burning lungs and a burning hut happened to be one of those out-of-hand circumstances.

He wheezed, groaning as he tried to push himself up to get to his bag. If he could just get that pill down he'd be fine until he could get everyone to safety.

But what then? His mind supplied.

He willed himself to just focus on getting the bag.

He was starting to feel dizzy from the lack of oxygen in his bloodstream. Collapsing to the ground, he gave a strangled laugh that sounded more like a cough. Of course; even if he could get to the bag, he would probably just choke on it instead of actually swallowing it.

Someone landed in the hut next to him- no, two people, he corrected himself. There were two.

They were talking to each other. He recognized the voices, but he couldn't tell whose they were; he couldn't even tell what sex each voice belonged to.

One of them shouted something. He made out his nickname, the one given to him by Jonah and Katherine, and the word time.

And then he could breathe again.

Well, not quite- he could breathe a bit better, and the air was much cooler, but he was still wheezing. Blinking, he realized he was in a time hollow.

Slowly, he noticed people were starting to appear around him. The Algonquians, he realized; the people who'd taken him in. Some of them began to crowd around him anxiously as he struggled to breathe, until someone told them to give him some space- One Who Survives Much, it sounded like.

They did back off a bit, though he could still see them looking at him anxiously.

Someone kneeled beside him. Katherine's concerned face popped into view.

"Where's... Jonah?" He choked out, glancing around the time hollow.

"He's still getting people out," she breathed, more people appearing as she said this.

He frowned, trying to sit up so he could breathe better. Katherine quickly put her hand on his back, supporting him.

Eventually, after what felt like forever, people stopped appearing around him. Katherine tensed beside JB- Jonah still wasn't there.

And then he was.

He was unconscious, and almost unrecognizable, covered in ash and dirt as he was, but Katherine got up to run to him almost immediately. She gave one glance back to JB, making sure he was okay. JB nodded. He noticed the Elucidator in Jonah's hand.

Wait.

The Elucidator.

His Elucidator was still in the Algonquian camp. A bunch of stuff from his time was still there.

"Katherine," he called out weakly, "toss me... Jonah's Elucidator."

She nodded, and he caught it as it sailed through the air. He punched in commands, and within seconds his bag was next to him in the time hollow.

It was a bit charred; some of the contents were a bit damaged but none of them were beyond repair.

He dug through it frantically, looking for his asthma medicine.

Finally, he found it. He pulled out the little tube that contained it, popping it open and downing it with the near-boiling water that had been in the waterskin he'd kept with him.

The effects were almost instant. His lungs began to clear up, and his thinking felt clearer now that there was a steady flow of oxygen to his bloodstream.

Jonah began to wake up at that point. It was hard to tell, because Jonah was still lying on the ground, but JB could hear Jonah's voice and Katherine just sounded so relieved.

Jonah was alive. All his friends were alive.

Maybe this time things would work out for the better.


End file.
